Rant #2,914: Drive My Car

Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag.
 
I spent an entire day covering that conference I told you about and writing it up—2,800 words worth.
 
I contacted the pool guy about opening our pool, and he said he would have to call us back about a date where he could come to the house and do it. I guess he is busy opening pools now—yesterday it hit 88 degrees here—but I have a sneaking suspicion that we might have a leak in the pool, because when adding water, it reaches a certain level and doesn’t go beyond that.
 
The biggest letdown was with trying to find my son a tutor or a program where they would teach him to pass the written driver’s test.
 
Nobody does this, and I do mean nobody that I called.
 
I was recommended to one school, who very brusquely told me that they don’t provide such services—“and no one else does,” according to them—and I also called one private person to perform such a task, and even though he was recommended ot me as not only a driver’s ed teacher but also a special ed teacher, he told me that he does not do this, either.
 
I have a couple of more avenues to explore, and if I exhaust those, I am back at square one.
 
You would really think that such services would be offered, but I guess they aren’t.
 
You pass the written test on your own, and then, there are avenues to explore if you are developmentally disabled and need them.
 
But until you pass the test yourself, without any help, you are nowhere.
 
Look, I know that driving is a major responsibility, and I understand why this is the way it is.
 
You can’t pass even the written test, then you can’t drive, I get it.
 
But I bet that there would be a market for private tutors for those who need them to pass this test … but I have not given up on it, and I will pursue the other avenues I have during the next few days.
 
I have tried myself to teach my son to pass this test, but there is a limit to what I can do.
 
The fact of the matter is that the organization that oversees his upkeep as a disabled person had such a course, and was planning another one until COVID hit.
 
I have checked back repeatedly to see if they were going to start this up again, but right now, this class is in limbo. My son was at the top of the list when they were planning for this, but when the pandemic hit, that was that for such a class, and they haven’t gotten to the point where they are even contemplating starting this up anytime soon, if at all.
 
So what may happen is that my son is just going to have to take the test without some extra instruction, and pass or fail on his own merits, which, perhaps, is the way it should be anyway.
 
I just wish that he had a little bit more instruction that I have given him, but the fact of the matter is that he has never passed a written test of any kind, when he was in school or otherwise.
 
In New York State, there is no way out of taking the Regents exams during your high school years, unless, evidently, if there is a pandemic, as the virus has scuttled various Regents exams during the past two and a half years.
 
Anyway, there was no pandemic when my son was in high school, and even though he was a solid special ed kid from day one, New York State unnecessarily forced him and thousands of other students like him to take several Regents exams, tests that they had no chance, and I do mean no chance, to pass.
 
I remember studying with him for a few of the exams, and I saw the hopelessness on his face as I was going over the work with him.
 
And yes, he failed the four Regents exams that he was forced to take, and incredibly, he got the same mark on each and every one of them, which was a 38.
 
He failed every other written test that he took during his entire schooling, so chances are that he might fail a written driver’s test too, even if he is given a few “helping aids” to get him through it, just like he had for the Regents exams: he can take the test separately by himself, he can have the test questions read out to him, he can take the test orally.
 
It is frustrating for him, but in order to drive, you have to pass the written test, no matter how you do it.
 
I try to make him feel better by saying that not everyone gets their driver’s license when they are his age—my mother did not get her license until she was in her 40s, my fraternal grandmother did not get hers until she was in her 60s, and neither of my material grandparents ever got their license … but I know that these things aren’t making him feel better about taking the test.
 
Like I said, if he can, he can, and if he can’t, he can’t.
 
Let’s hope it is more of the former than the latter … at least let me do my own due diligence in exhausting every avenue related to this.
 
I am not willing to take “no” for a final answer just yet.
 
I owe at least that to my son.

(If you are wondering about why this post was so late, it is because we have had two power failures that have put this post on hold. That makes four that we have had in two weeks, which is completely unacceptable. But I am not going to scream at the moon about it ... heck, through Superstorm Sandy, we never lost our connections, but through days that cannot possibly compare to that travesty, we have now lost our power four times. 

Someone has a lot of 'splainin' to do, wouldn't you agree?)